Improvement in drying-rooms



Improvement in Drying Rooms.

i Patent gd Oct. 10, 1871.

ROBERT DALRYMPL'E.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

ROBERT DALRYMPLE, OF GALT, CANADA.

IMPROVEMENT IN DRYING-ROOMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 119,747, dated October 10, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, ROBERT DALRYMPLE, of the town of Galt, in the county of Waterloo, in the Province of Ontario and Dominion of (Janada, wool and lumber broker, have invented certain Improvements in Wool and Lumber Drying- Booms, of which the following is a specification:

My invention consists in a room for drying Wool and lumber, with a perforated or open floor placed at an altitude hereafter specified, the said room to be built air-tight in all parts except where ventilators are provided for regulating the admission of cold air, which is heated by an open coke or charcoal furnace, (placed inside the room,) and ascends by natural laws, causing a current of warm air to pass through the perforated floor, thereby drying the wool or lumber which may be supported by the said floor, substantially as hereafter specified.

Figure 1, front section through 0 D; Fig. 2, cross-section through AB; Fig. 3, sectional plan through a; y.

A room with a low ceiling and heated by steampipes or stove is the most common arrangement used for drying wool, the wool being laid out on racks arranged around the room and is turned as required, to assist the drying, by attendants in ch. rge; this way is expensive, requiring much attention, and is tedious in its operation. There are also complicated machines for the same purpose, by which hot and cold air is driven or drawn through the wool. These machines are very costly, and there are other objections to them which prevent their general adoption. In my invention the good points of these machines are secured without any of their expensive ma chinery, and I am enabled to dry in my room six times as much wool or lumber as is the capacity of the best machine or room with which I am familiar. I build of any suitable material a room, the drying-floor of which is placed at a distance above the lower floor about equal to one and a half (1%) times the width of the room F, when the base of the same is square; when rectangular, the height of the aforesaid floor to be found by dividing the area of its base by half the sum of two sides thereof. This room may be connected to the main building or built separate, as may be preferred. The drying-floor B is placed at an altitude sufficiently high to permit the cold air admitted through the draught-regulators O and the draught-holes in the furnace to become thoroughly warmed by the coke-furnace A (which is open at the top, as shown) before it escapes through the floor B. The drawing illustrates about the proper height of the floor in proportion to the other measurementspf the room; but, of course, the proportion may be varied a little, so long as it is kept at a sufficient altitude to permit the heat to diffuse through the whole lower compartments, thus causing an equal draught of warm air to pass through all the wool which is supported by the perforated floor B; for should the fioorB be too close to the furnace A, the draught would be only directly over the furnace; the drying would thus be imperfect. D is aradiator, which I place immediately over the furnace A in order to prevent any sparks which might ascend from the furnace getting into the wool, and also to break the draught should it have a tendency to be greater over the furnace. The room F below the floorA I make air-tight, excepting at the points before mentioned. There is, of course, the ordinary draught through the furnace A; should this not prove sufficient to cause a good draught through the floor B, it can be increased by opening the draughtregulator O, which can also be closed as required. In order to make the room F more securely air-tight, I build a stoop, or firemans compartment, E. The furnaceA is connected to this, and the draught-holes are the only connection it has with the room F. The outer door G closes the compartmentE from the exterior the coke or charcoal is kept in this compartment, and the fireman closes the outer door when attending to the fire. By this arrangement all sudden gusts of cold air are prevented, and the draught can be better regulated. The upper room H has proper ventilators for carrying off the air when it has passed through the wool upon the floor B, and is also provided with a door or doors to permit those attending to the wool to pass in and out. It may also have windows, if thought necessary. The height of this room is of no consequence.

Having now described the general arrangement of my room and the principle upon which it works, it is almost unnecessary to remark that the constant current of warm air passing through the wool upon the perforated floor B dries the wool with great rapidity, and at the same time the gentle current has a strong tendency to separate the fibers and thereby make the wool soft and pliable when dry. Lumber may be placed upon the floor B so that the warm air can pass around each board, and, as I said before, six times more can be dried in my room than in any other with which I am familiar.

I do not claim using heated air for drying wool and lumber, nor do I claim forcing a current of air through the same; but

What I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The drier, constructed as described, with the perforated floor B placed at a distance above the lower floor about equal to one and ahalf'(1%-) times the width of the room F, when the base of the same is square; when rectangulanthe height of the aforesaid floor to be formed bydividing the area of its base by half the sum of two sides thereof, and provided with the furnace, a com- Witnesses:

GEO. S. PHILIP, JOHN KAY. 

